Must see: David Plouffe vs Karl Rove from ABC's "This Week"

From ABC's This Week:

Part One



Part Two



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Barack Obama's political team is a disaster.

The Chicago Squad (Emanuel, Axelrod and Jarrett, with Robert Gibbs)

To say that Emanuel, Jarrett and Axelrod performed stellar as political advisors in 2009, you will need to take a bicarbonate of soda for that rationale.

The new excitement is that President Obama will bring both factions, Democrats and Republicans, to the White House for negotiating health care, again, but this time in the ray of sunlight. Oh, it will be on television.

To say that I am jumping up and down or doing a "Dorothy" by clicking my ebony pimped out black encrusted crystal stilettos for this announcement, you will be waiting a long time for that one. And I can jump in my pumps!!!

Let me be clear, I am glad that Barack Obama is going on television, doing President's Time, calling the Republicans out, and Democrats to some extent, but when the euphoria dies down it comes back to this, "Did anything change?" And the answer is "NO".

Now, I have to look at what happened in 2009? Sure, we were over the moon in having the Democrats in charge and Barack Obama as president, but did major legislation move forward to make a difference? And I mean a difference the average American can feel, talk about at the dinner table and the answer is no.

Senator Al Franken was right in lashing out his frustrations towards the White House, primarily the Political Team. They have been horrible from practically day one. I refuse to believe that this political team did not know the frustration of the public out here on the Wall Street bonuses, bailout monies, confusion of the health care bill, etc. They did know, they just chose to ignore it and believed that once any health care bill was passed the poll numbers will shoot up. Damn, what a difference a clusterfuck year makes.

The Obama White House political team which includes Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, Advisors Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod has stepped on many toes. The primary beef from Democrats from Capitol Hill has been lack of leadership from the White House, President and this criticism goes far back to last summer.

The fact is we have our president, rebooting, wanting to bring sunlight to the dark on health care. He needs to. The Democrats need major legislation to win in November, so the pander train is in full force. This is damage control by David Plouffe, because that political bunch would never allow Obama on television in the open after the corrupt deals made by the very political team on behalf of the President. These very deals from Sens. Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and the pharmaceutical deal has hurt the very "transparency" of this White House. Now, it is reboot time. It is those deals from the super smart political team which is finding times a bit harder now.

Any serious survey of the Obama administration's accomplishments and setbacks over the last year has to conclude that the administration is deeply in the red.

If current trends continue, this once mesmerizing Camelot-ish operation will be be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that -- to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase Churchill -- never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much.

I never understood the namby-pamby of this White House. I expected the olive branch, openness to the other side, but when it did not work to move on. I did not expect the continuation of bipartisanship when the Republicans have continued to spit in our faces.

David Plouffe is right on this point:

"Republicans right now are just sitting back and slinging arrows," Plouffe said. "We need to infiltrate their camp and shine some light over their side of the fence."

Absolutely, we need to shine the light and expose the Republicans for the cowards and obstructionists they are. In the mean time, that political team which has delivered disastrous results, thus far, needs to be revamped too. Along with having CREDIBLE individuals on television who can speak crisp, sharp, factual on a smack down mode in behalf of the White House.

Lastly, with the meeting for health care being televised (February 25), out in the open, expect all the deals that the smart political team made on behalf of the Obama White House to be out in the open, with apologies by President Obama for making these deals. In the end, can we get bipartisanship from this meeting? I doubt it. This issue is too politicized and damaged, in my view. The only thing that can move forward is having the Republicans say no, publicly, and have the Democrats find some leadership over in D.C. to fix the bill and push it through.

Again, that leadership thingy? That is asking an awful lot for the Democrats to produce. I hope I am wrong, but thus far by their performance, I don't think so.

John Edwards, two words, "A trip...."

From the forthcoming David Plouffe book:

Sometime after the South Carolina debate Plouffe got a call from a senior Edwards Advisor who said Edwards was willing to announce the end of his campaign and join forces with Obama to defeat Clinton. When Plouffe asked if he could raise this with Obama the Edwards advisor said, “Yes.…Just to be clear we’re going to talk to the Clinton people too. That’s not where John’s heart is, but he is at the point of maximum leverage now.”

“Obama’s answer,” Plouffe writes, “was quick and firm: he would cut no deals.”

Interesting stuff, I definitely have Plouffe's book in my amazon.com queue.

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You got to love this, by David Plouffe, Obama's Campaign Manager

Minority Leader Limbaugh.

Everyone has been talking about Rush Limbaugh being the fatcat that he is, and King Rush is loving the idea that he is the Republican Party Leader. It took Rahm Emanuel with his smooth, praising way on Sunday's Face the Nation to honor King Rush and call him the Republican Leader. It took the Republicans to take the bait, by their RNC Chairman Michael Steele in denouncing King Rush on CNNs D.L. Hughley's show which started a barn fire. It did not take Steele even 24 hours to kiss the ring of King Rush and apologize for forgiveness, this after King Rush slammed Steele from his bully pulpit in Florida, his radio microphone.

The Democrats are piling on. Let's face it, if it was the other way around the Republicans would do likewise. Let's also be honest that the Republican leadership is scared to cross King Rush, whether they are agree with King Rush or not, they are scared to cross him. That bully pulpit in Florida is pretty mighty. King Rush talks directly to that hardcore base that the Republicans must keep and maintain to try to build on. Even though this part of the Republican Party is out of step right now with the rest of America in their views of the Obama Administration, this is what the Republicans have to deal with right now. So, crossing King Rush is a definite no, no.

Here comes David Plouffe, the mastermind behind the Obama Campaign and he throws in his two cents on Minority Leader Limbaugh.

Watching the Republicans operate this past month, it would appear that they missed that unmistakable signal.

Instead, Rush Limbaugh has become their leader.

Limbaugh, of course, told his radio listeners that he's rooting for President Obama to fail -- and hoping the president's ideas for bolstering our economy fail with him. For many Americans, hungry for leadership and cooperation, this sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. When Limbaugh reiterated the sentiment this weekend, hundreds of Republican conservatives cheered him on. But instead of rebuking the radio personality or charting their own course, Republican leaders in Washington are paralyzed with fear of crossing their leader. Less than 24 hours after committing the unforgivable sin of criticizing Limbaugh, RNC Chairman Michael Steele felt compelled to publicly apologize. He was not the first and will certainly not be the last.

The Republicans surely did not get the message who won November 4, 2008. In fact from poll after poll, even the NBC poll released yesterday, the American Public is standing with President Obama and they don't blame him for this economic mess. The public does not see Obama, as the one who created it, but more so the Republicans who did and left it on the desk for Obama to clean up. But what Plouffe wrote, hit the nail on the head, Obama won by the middle the independent voters and it is these voters that left the Republican Party and these voters that don't like Rush Limbaugh.

The source of Obama's advantage is critical: independent voters, who give the president high marks on his handling of the economy and his job overall.

Obama won these voters, who famously recoil from what they see as overly partisan and shortsighted politics, by eight points in 2008 -- a dramatic improvement for the Democrats from 2004, when George Bush and John Kerry tied.

People are tired of the bickering and partisanship in Washington, D.C. What people want is action and see these folks sit down like adults to work together to help President Obama fix what is broken in this country. But without Republican leadership they have allowed the likes of Rush Limbaugh to be their mouthpiece.

Thus far, Republican leaders have let their strategy be guided by their most conservative base, capturing perhaps a third of the nation's voters.

To end, what Michael Steele did was validate the point of Rahm Emanuel, that Rush Limbaugh is their leader. Also, as Roland Martin has said and written, it minimized Michael Steele in the eyes of many, especially within their own party. This takes us to an ending question, "Do the Republicans have a spine? Can they stand on their own and denounce Rush Limbaugh when they disagree?" Until those questions are answered, the Republicans will continue in the wilderness.


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David Plouffe, Obama Campaign Manager, Gets a Book Deal

A seven-figure book deal. Yes, this is one book that I do want to read, like millions of others.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe has agreed to a seven-figure deal to write a book about last year's presidential election.

"The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory" will be published by Viking next fall.

According to a statement issued Wednesday by Viking, the book will offer a unique, high-level account, including "the deliberations about whether to run against long odds, the epic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, the drama of the general election campaign against John McCain and the strategic roads taken — and not taken ... The book will also detail the business lessons to be learned from the formation and the functioning of an unprecedented $1 billion start-up — use of technology, crisis management, grass roots, and personnel management."

Viking is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).

Interest was strong for Plouffe's book. The Obama campaign not only raised the most money ever for a presidential election — some $750 million — but is widely credited for being among the most sophisticated and well organized. Plouffe's literary representative, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, told The Associated Press that 17 imprints (some within the same publishing house) competed for the book.

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The mastermind of the Obama Campaign, David Plouffe (Video)

John King, CNN, interviews David Plouffe

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